On the Use of Turnitin for term essays:

Somewhat reluctantly, I have accepted the advice of both the Director of Undergraduate Studies and my TA (Jessie Lamontagne) to follow most of my colleagues in adopting Turnitin, as a defence aganst the
chronic problem of plagiarism in term essays. This year, for the first time, the Turnitin program has been integrated with Blackboard's Portal, with information found at this website , with additional information on this
site.

The following is an official statement that U of T requires us to post concerning the use of Turnitin (which is legally not mandatory):

“Normally, students will be required to submit their course essays to Turnitin.com for a review of textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. In doing so,
students will allow their essays to be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database, where they will be used solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that apply to the University's use
of the Turnitin.com service are described on the Turnitin.com web site. Turnitin.com is most effective when it is used by all students in a particular course; but, if and when students object to its use on principle, a reasonable offline alternative
must be offered. There is a wide variety of non-electronic methods that can be used to deter and detect plagiarism; for example, to require that all rough work is handed in with the paper or that the student include an annotated bibliography with the paper.
Instructors may wish to consult with the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation when establishing these alternatives."

On Portal's Blackboard, the submission of the first term essays can be found under 'Course Materials', from the menu on the left-hand column. Do the following, in this order:

(1) Under 'First Term Essays', click on 'View Assignment'

(2) Click on the second box from the left: Submit

(3) Select (i) a submission type: and the default is 'file upload' (uploading a file from your computer)

(4) Submission Details (ii): enter, in the corresponding spaces, your student name and the title of your essay. You should be able to use the drop-down menu to the right of 'student name' to select your name from the class list.

(5) Then under 'Submission, Part 1' and File to Submit, use the Browse function to upload the computer file (PDF, Word) from your computer's hard drive

(6) Submit: click on the Submit button to proceed with the submission; or click on Cancel to quit.